4,100 research outputs found
Semantic analysis of field sports video using a petri-net of audio-visual concepts
The most common approach to automatic summarisation and highlight detection in sports video is to train an automatic classifier to detect semantic highlights based on occurrences of low-level features such as action replays, excited commentators or changes in a scoreboard. We propose an alternative approach based on the detection of perception concepts (PCs) and the construction of Petri-Nets which can be used for both semantic description and event detection within sports videos. Low-level algorithms for the detection of perception concepts using visual, aural and motion characteristics are proposed, and a series of Petri-Nets composed of perception concepts is formally defined to describe video content. We call this a Perception Concept Network-Petri Net (PCN-PN) model. Using PCN-PNs, personalized high-level semantic descriptions of video highlights can be facilitated and queries on high-level semantics can be achieved. A particular strength of this framework is that we can easily build semantic detectors based on PCN-PNs to search within sports videos and locate interesting events. Experimental results based on recorded sports
video data across three types of sports games (soccer, basketball and rugby), and each from multiple broadcasters, are used to illustrate the potential of this framework
Activity recognition from videos with parallel hypergraph matching on GPUs
In this paper, we propose a method for activity recognition from videos based
on sparse local features and hypergraph matching. We benefit from special
properties of the temporal domain in the data to derive a sequential and fast
graph matching algorithm for GPUs.
Traditionally, graphs and hypergraphs are frequently used to recognize
complex and often non-rigid patterns in computer vision, either through graph
matching or point-set matching with graphs. Most formulations resort to the
minimization of a difficult discrete energy function mixing geometric or
structural terms with data attached terms involving appearance features.
Traditional methods solve this minimization problem approximately, for instance
with spectral techniques.
In this work, instead of solving the problem approximatively, the exact
solution for the optimal assignment is calculated in parallel on GPUs. The
graphical structure is simplified and regularized, which allows to derive an
efficient recursive minimization algorithm. The algorithm distributes
subproblems over the calculation units of a GPU, which solves them in parallel,
allowing the system to run faster than real-time on medium-end GPUs
Multiple View Geometry For Video Analysis And Post-production
Multiple view geometry is the foundation of an important class of computer vision techniques for simultaneous recovery of camera motion and scene structure from a set of images. There are numerous important applications in this area. Examples include video post-production, scene reconstruction, registration, surveillance, tracking, and segmentation. In video post-production, which is the topic being addressed in this dissertation, computer analysis of the motion of the camera can replace the currently used manual methods for correctly aligning an artificially inserted object in a scene. However, existing single view methods typically require multiple vanishing points, and therefore would fail when only one vanishing point is available. In addition, current multiple view techniques, making use of either epipolar geometry or trifocal tensor, do not exploit fully the properties of constant or known camera motion. Finally, there does not exist a general solution to the problem of synchronization of N video sequences of distinct general scenes captured by cameras undergoing similar ego-motions, which is the necessary step for video post-production among different input videos. This dissertation proposes several advancements that overcome these limitations. These advancements are used to develop an efficient framework for video analysis and post-production in multiple cameras. In the first part of the dissertation, the novel inter-image constraints are introduced that are particularly useful for scenes where minimal information is available. This result extends the current state-of-the-art in single view geometry techniques to situations where only one vanishing point is available. The property of constant or known camera motion is also described in this dissertation for applications such as calibration of a network of cameras in video surveillance systems, and Euclidean reconstruction from turn-table image sequences in the presence of zoom and focus. We then propose a new framework for the estimation and alignment of camera motions, including both simple (panning, tracking and zooming) and complex (e.g. hand-held) camera motions. Accuracy of these results is demonstrated by applying our approach to video post-production applications such as video cut-and-paste and shadow synthesis. As realistic image-based rendering problems, these applications require extreme accuracy in the estimation of camera geometry, the position and the orientation of the light source, and the photometric properties of the resulting cast shadows. In each case, the theoretical results are fully supported and illustrated by both numerical simulations and thorough experimentation on real data
Circulant temporal encoding for video retrieval and temporal alignment
We address the problem of specific video event retrieval. Given a query video
of a specific event, e.g., a concert of Madonna, the goal is to retrieve other
videos of the same event that temporally overlap with the query. Our approach
encodes the frame descriptors of a video to jointly represent their appearance
and temporal order. It exploits the properties of circulant matrices to
efficiently compare the videos in the frequency domain. This offers a
significant gain in complexity and accurately localizes the matching parts of
videos. The descriptors can be compressed in the frequency domain with a
product quantizer adapted to complex numbers. In this case, video retrieval is
performed without decompressing the descriptors. We also consider the temporal
alignment of a set of videos. We exploit the matching confidence and an
estimate of the temporal offset computed for all pairs of videos by our
retrieval approach. Our robust algorithm aligns the videos on a global timeline
by maximizing the set of temporally consistent matches. The global temporal
alignment enables synchronous playback of the videos of a given scene
Bottom-up retinotopic organization supports top-down mental imagery
Finding a path between locations is a routine task in daily life. Mental navigation is often used to plan a route to a destination that is not visible from the current location. We first used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and surface-based averaging methods to find high-level brain regions involved in imagined navigation between locations in a building very familiar to each participant. This revealed a mental navigation network that includes the precuneus, retrosplenial cortex (RSC), parahippocampal place area (PPA), occipital place area (OPA), supplementary motor area (SMA), premotor cortex, and areas along the medial and anterior intraparietal sulcus. We then visualized retinotopic maps in the entire cortex using wide-field, natural scene stimuli in a separate set of fMRI experiments. This revealed five distinct visual streams or ‘fingers’ that extend anteriorly into middle temporal, superior parietal, medial parietal, retrosplenial and ventral occipitotemporal cortex. By using spherical morphing to overlap these two data sets, we showed that the mental navigation network primarily occupies areas that also contain retinotopic maps. Specifically, scene-selective regions RSC, PPA and OPA have a common emphasis on the far periphery of the upper visual field. These results suggest that bottom-up retinotopic organization may help to efficiently encode scene and location information in an eye-centered reference frame for top-down, internally generated mental navigation. This study pushes the border of visual cortex further anterior than was initially expected
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